Observing at APEX (Run #1)

Posted on 22/12/2016 by Tom

In December, I spent a week collecting photons with the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment. As a co-investigator on an approved proposal, I volunteered to join a small team of four astronomers that would use APEX during the scheduled Chilean observing time … Read more →

Posted in Astronomy | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Observing at APEX (Run #1)

How to Move Institutes in Five Easy Steps

Posted on 15/09/2015 by Tom

I’m finally back to work after moving from Belgium to Chile. I’m thrilled to start a new position as an ALMA-CONYCIT research associate at the Universidad de Valparaiso. Even with the help of past experience, this time moving countries took … Read more →

Posted in Postdoc Life, Travel | Tagged , , | Comments Off on How to Move Institutes in Five Easy Steps

IC 2531 imaged with Faulkes Telescope

Posted on 15/03/2014 by Tom

New data taken by schools will help us better understand dust in galaxies. Edge-on spiral galaxies like IC 2531 are used by astronomers to study a lot of interesting properties as they offer us the best opportunity to determine the … Read more →

Posted in Astronomy | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Saturn system imaged by Cassini

Posted on 12/11/2013 by Tom

Just a quick post to highlight the beautiful images of Saturn from Cassini. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft used Saturn itself to eclipse the light from the Sun and obtain some stunning mosaics of Saturn’s rings and moons, plus other planets including … Read more →

Posted in Science | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Gas and dust in nearby edge-on spiral NGC 891

Posted on 11/10/2013 by Tom

Here’s a sneak preview of my recent results on NGC 891. Next week, I am participating in The Universe Explored By Herschel symposium, held at ESA-ESTEC in Noordwijk, The Netherlands. The program, focusing on the scientific breakthroughs based on Herschel … Read more →

Posted in Research | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Creating figures from FITS images with APLpy

Posted on 29/07/2013 by Tom

The Python module APLpy is a great tool for plotting professional-looking astro images. Short for Astronomical Plotting Library in Python, APLpy aims to produce publication-quality plots of astronomical images in FITS file format. As I’ve been using it a lot … Read more →

Posted in Code | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Hello world!

Posted on 01/07/2013 by Tom

  Just writing a quick post – my first post – to say hello! I’m going to start blogging on a weekly basis about astronomy, computing, the daily life of a postdoc, and some stories of my travels. I hope … Read more →

Posted in Postdoc Life | Tagged , , | Leave a comment